Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

[Pressler69]

I purchased the book "Disney Mountains: Imagineering at its Peak" to kill time while waiting for the fireworks at Disneyland. One thing I noticed was that Mount Prometheus, which is perhaps the most elaborate, incredible, and awe inspiring Disney Mountain ever built, only got four pages in this otherwise decent book.

Five pages was devoted to Grizzly River Run, a short sighted project that includes a river rafting ride that is practically in every Six Flags park in the world

The Mount Prometheus section includes two pieces of incredible concept art, a photo of 20K Leagues' outdoor queue and exit (a great looking area, but not the best looking area), and a photo of the mountain erupting not bigger than my thumb. They don't include a large photo of a wide shot of Mount Prometheus in all its glory nor do they include a shot of the incredible rockwork and lava. Not even the drilling machine.

You could probably write a whole book about the creation of Mount Prometheus and Mysterious island. Even this book says, "Mount Prometheus is the largest man-made rock structure the Imagineers have ever built." So it only deserves four pages? In a book about Disney Mountains? This is it, this is the big one.

In any case, I was surprised they even included a section on Mount Prometheus at all. Disney isn't in the business of advertising another company's wares. I'm sure the makers of this book received notes from Disney to shorten the Mount Prometheus section and not to gush too much about it.

We wouldn't want people skipping that trip to Walt Disney World to visit Tokyo now would we?

[TDR_Fan]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I totally agree. Mount Prometheus is definitely the most impressive and elaborate "mountain" ever built by WDI. I have not purchased this book yet, but I was very disappointed to see Mount Prometheus getting very little mention. Certainly not even close to the credit and praise it deserves.

The fact that a whole land revolves around it is just a testament to how gigantic and all-encompassing it is. And it's completely made from real rock. No plaster of Paris, concrete, fibreglass, or chicken wire here like they used with the other "mountains".

[FinalAdventure]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

That reminds me of my 50th anniversary book, which reviews all of the Disney theme parks (except Hong Kong, because it was opening in a few months when the book was published). The book is called "Around the World with Disney".

Page 60 has this huge picture of the Matterhorn (it covers the entire page), and includes a tiny picture of the yeti. Page 61 has two tiny 3 inch pictures of Mount Prometheus and a Journey to the Center of the Earth vehicle, and right below it, taking up the rest of the page, is Expedition EVEREST.

This is how they describe both rides:

Expedition EVEREST: "Walt Disney World finally gets an Abominable Snowman of its own in 2006 (note this book was published a year before it opened), when Expedition EVEREST opens in the Asia section of Disney's Animal Kingdom. The coasterlike, high-speed train adventure shoots guests up a 200-foot-high mountain. On the way to the peak, they climb through a bamboo forest, skirt plunging cliffs, and race through ice caverns -- all prefatory to an encounter with the legendary Yeti."

Journey to the Center of the Earth: "Perched atop Mysterious Island at Tokyo DisneySea, this Jules Verne-themed roller coaster plunges through a volcanic crater into a subterranean twilight zone."

...... several mistakes spotted in the JTTCOTE description, and Everest is flawless! Why!?! JTTCOTE isn't a roller coaster, it uses a high-speed system that Test Track uses, and you do not enter "the subterranean twilight zone"... it's not even close to Tower of Terror.

I know what you mean about this. JTTCOTE has a quarter of a page, while Everest gets 3/4 of a page.

Look at the back of the book.

Disneyland gets 25 attractions featured.
DCA gets 17 attractions featured.
Disneyland Resort Paris gets 18 attractions featured.
Tokyo Disneyland gets 12 attractions featured.
Tokyo DisneySea gets 9 attractions featured. (Single digits!)
WDW gets 87 attractions featured.

Yes, and those 9 attractions TDS gets to display are:

1. American Waterfront (more like a land, actually, and all they show is the logo and a tiny pic of S.S Columbia and a 2 sentence description, while WDW gets 3 paragraphs on Mad Tea Party)
2. Aquatopia
3. Caravan Carousel
4. DisneySea Electric Railway
5. DisneySea Transit Steamer Line
6. Indiana Jones Adventure
7. Journey to the Center of the Earth
8. Mermaid Lagoon (this gets the biggest dedication to TDS -- 2 entire pages!!)
9. Venetian Gondolas

Tower of Terror probably would've been featured, but it didn't open until a year after the book was published.

Still... I can't find a decent book that explains everything about the wonders of TDS. Are there any in existance?

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Damn, I want to see this book.

[Pressler69]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Damn, I want to see this book.

It's an otherwise decent book. It has a few pictures I've never seen before including two of Walt in a bobsled with the Shah of Iran and another with Joe Fowler. Some of the stories are pretty cool, including a prank where they put a penis onto the Matterhorn abominable snowman to scare a woman, a prank that would get people fired today.

But I would like to see a proper english Tokyo Disney Resort book sold in the US. It's probably not going to happen though.

[Bystander]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I feel the need to point out that not every use of the phrase "twilight zone" refers to Rod Serling's television series. In this case, it simply means a dimly lit area.

[FinalAdventure]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I feel the need to point out that not every use of the phrase "twilight zone" refers to Rod Serling's television series. In this case, it simply means a dimly lit area.

Ya, but the certain sentence they used it in made it sound like they were referring to Rod Serling's series.

"Subterranean twilight zone"... yup Rod Serling imo.

[Pressler69]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

So does anyone else think there is a conspiracy to shield the American public from the Tokyo Disney Resort? I can't imagine why an Imagineer would write a book about Imagineering without going into great detail about the incredible achievements by WDI in Japan.

I do think some memos were passed along to tone down the depiction of the Japanese parks in Imagineering books sold at Disneyland.

I'm surprised Disney doesn't work with the OLC to sell DisneySea travel packages and encourage tourists to make TDR a part of their Japanese vacation.

[DearScotty]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

So does anyone else think there is a conspiracy to shield the American public from the Tokyo Disney Resort? I can't imagine why an Imagineer would write a book about Imagineering without going into great detail about the incredible achievements by WDI in Japan.

I do think some memos were passed along to tone down the depiction of the Japanese parks in Imagineering books sold at Disneyland.

I'm surprised Disney doesn't work with the OLC to sell DisneySea travel packages and encourage tourists to make TDR a part of their Japanese vacation.

I've been telling my friends back home that I'm going to TDS and no one seems to care. I forced one friend to see some of the pictures here. He was sold just on these messageboards. He asked me why the travel channel hasn't ever done a piece. I just figured OLC was making more money that Disney.

[MasterGracey]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Like every Disney book, The Disney Mountains has its flaws.

I thought it was incredibly lame and cheap to dedicate so much space to Grizzly River Run and Expedition Everest. I mean, certainly both mountains deserve mention in the book, but the Expedition Everest section is far too large, and the Grizzly Peak section is laughable. Tokyo Disneyland definitely got jipped here, as the book not only skimps on Mount Prometheus, but it completely fails to talk about Japan's Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain attractions.

Nevertheless, the book is still another great title in Jason Surrell's growing Disney theme park series.

That reminds me of my 50th anniversary book, which reviews all of the Disney theme parks (except Hong Kong, because it was opening in a few months when the book was published). The book is called "Around the World with Disney".

I remember seeing that book in nearly every shop at Walt Disney World when I visited shortly after Disneyland's birthday in 2005.

I nearly bought it. But I found it to be a big pile of marketing rubbish. I didn't see much useful, or even interesting, information in it and despite it being a title directly related to the 50th Anniversary celebration, it focused heavily on Walt Disney World instead of Disneyland.

What a waste. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on it.

[flynnibus]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I can't imagine why an Imagineer would write a book about Imagineering without going into great detail about the incredible achievements by WDI in Japan.

Maybe they don't see it as much their product? Just as WDI has done design work for many non-disney projects, they never get much mention except maybe something in passing.

[MasterGracey]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Maybe they don't see it as much their product? Just as WDI has done design work for many non-disney projects, they never get much mention except maybe something in passing.

I find that hard to believe. It's 100% their product. I'd actually go so far as to say its more their product than anything they've ever been able to build in the United States. Tokyo Disneyland is the only place that the Imagineers have been able to build practically anything they've been able to dream up with almost nothing to hold them back... It's what Walt Disney dreamed of doing - and I wouldn't doubt that if Walt had his own Oriental Land Company footin' the bill in 1955, we would have totally different kind of park in Anaheim right now.


I believe Jason Surrell is based out of Florida's branch of WDI. With that said, it doesn't surprise me that he spent so much time on Expedition Everest. Also, since this book is being published by Disney's own Welcome Books, I'm not surprised that Tokyo Disneyland is heavily down-played. Better to hype the American parks (and to some extent the Parisian parks) where Disney has a greater financial interest.

[composerboy]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I totally agree. Mount Prometheus is definitely the most impressive and elaborate "mountain" ever built by WDI...

...And it's completely made from real rock. No plaster of Paris, concrete, fibreglass, or chicken wire here like they used with the other "mountains".

I don't know who told you that, and maybe it's just a testament to the incredibly high level of artistry at work on the mountain, but Mount Prometheus is constructed and finished in exactly the same way as all the other modern mountains - with structural steel girders, rebar, lathe and concrete. There are numerous techniques used to form the concrete into the desired appearance, such as pressing it into molds made from real rock structures, and hand sculpting of the material at various stages of curing. It is then painted and stained using a variety of techniques, and often dressed with real rocks and rubble. There is quite a lot of real rock dressing on the mountain, and that may be how the rumor was started, but rest assured, it took dozens of artists over two years and $100 million to complete the largest man made rockwork structure on the planet, featuring over 1 million square feet of sculpted and painted surfaces.

[TDR_Fan]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

I don't know who told you that, and maybe it's just a testament to the incredibly high level of artistry at work on the mountain, but Mount Prometheus is constructed and finished in exactly the same way as all the other modern mountains - with structural steel girders, rebar, lathe and concrete. There are numerous techniques used to form the concrete into the desired appearance, such as pressing it into molds made from real rock structures, and hand sculpting of the material at various stages of curing. It is then painted and stained using a variety of techniques, and often dressed with real rocks and rubble. There is quite a lot of real rock dressing on the mountain, and that may be how the rumor was started, but rest assured, it took dozens of artists over two years and $100 million to complete the largest man made rockwork structure on the planet, featuring over 1 million square feet of sculpted and painted surfaces.

While I'm not certain on how it was constructed, I do know for a fact that there was 750,000 sq. feet of real rock involved. It may be true that there are steel supports holding up the shape of the mountain, but it is still majorly composed of real rock. More so than any mountain ever built by WDI by far.

[tasman]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

^^ A solid rock structure with rides going through it would be very difficult to support. IMO the real rock is probably only on the surface.

[composerboy]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Like I said, a large portion of the Mountain is DRESSED with real rock. Small rocks, gravel and other agregate that are pressed into the sculpted concrete.

[TDR_Fan]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

^^ A solid rock structure with rides going through it would be very difficult to support. IMO the real rock is probably only on the surface.

That's probably true. Too bad I can't seem to find early construction photos. But like I mentioned above, real rock is still a major component in the structure of Mount Prometheus.

[TDR_Fan]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Like I said, a large portion of the Mountain is DRESSED with real rock. Small rocks, gravel and other agregate that are pressed into the sculpted concrete.

750,000 square feet of real rock seems to be a bit too large for simply surface decorating. My source says that it was real rock piled up 167 feet high, with steel supports inside most likely.

[flynnibus]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

Rock settles - Rock Moves. There is zero chance Disney allowed a ride system to have structural rock or piles of as part of its mountain. Especially in an earthquake zone.

750,000 square feet is an area measurement - not a volume measurement.

[Malin]

Re: Mount Prometheus only gets four pages in the book "Disney Mountains"

750,000 square feet of real rock seems to be a bit too large for simply surface decorating. My source says that it was real rock piled up 167 feet high, with steel supports inside most likely.

Since when did you have sources?